Arthur Ashe-Thoughts in Passing by Fred Mullane

Nobody wakes up in the morning and decides to become an icon. Sure, some wake up smarter, some better looking, some richer, some might even be “ born to greatness” (although recent world history seems to have diminished that theory), but none of us wake up destined to become icons. That is something that is thrust upon a person by life. War heroes, true giants of industry, great world leaders, all are the result of a cascade of life changing events that force an individual to make decisions that, over time, change their lives and, like a philosophical Doppler effect, change the lives of all who come into contact with them. Arthur Ashe was one of those people. But before this becomes one more in a long line of accolade filled stories that probably bored him to tears, after a certain point, let’ s remember a few things that always get lost in the mix.

Arthur was a tennis player. For most of his life, he was no more, no less. And that was a good thing because he was a great one. Sure, maybe he had a few chinks in the armor that could have been fixed. Some used to laugh that his swinging forehand volley cost him more titles than his bone spurs but, over the long haul, he was a great one. And he was always prepared. How many know that he used to run steps in arenas before he took the court so that he was so warmed up before a match that he was up 4 games before the other guy was even in the match. Or, because he understood how important a player is to their sponsors, never turned up for an interview without wearing at least a sponsor shirt and bearing his trademark Arthur Ashe Head Comp racquet. I was with him at 6 am, shooting on the set of the Today Show and , before the first question had been asked, he had already presented the host with a gift of a signed Head racquet. Always prepared, always dressed impeccably, even if in jeans, carrying that little brown “ manpurse” , strap around his wrist, that we all made fun of at the time. But, in that little bag, besides the money, were the contact details of some of the most important political figures of the time. Always prepared. When his visa to play in South Africa was denied, he was prepared and the result of that preparation was what started Arthur on the path from merely being a great tennis player to being a great human being. The stance that Arthur and his fellow tennis professionals took towards his exclusion began the slow but inexorable change to the open world of sport all enjoy now. He married his intellectual equal, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, all was well until…well, everything that can be said about his heart surgeries, the tainted blood transfusion, the contracting of AIDS, has been said. It was the courage in the face of the future, the continuation of his previous work and the addition of even more charitable work, the documenting of his pending demise (with photographs by Jeanne) for his daughter, Camera, and his willingness, even while becoming thinner and weaker, to continue to speak at ATP and other events, the selflessness, while still maintaining his one-of-the-boys humor with his former competitors, that completed his transformation from tennis player to icon.

Do yourself a favor. Go online, go to a library, go to Amazon, Apple, Nook, read his works, read his biography, look at Jeanne’ s photographs, and think about what it took for a young African-American man from Richmond to become an icon. Maybe, like Arthur, when the time comes you will be prepared.

Topics: Arthur Ashe

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